On May 18, 2019 the Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering Research Development Center (ERDC) hosted the third annual Junior Solar Sprint. In this event attendees build small solar powered race cars and compete for victory in heads up racing action. They also present their projects to a panel of judges and compete for award in a several categories.

We gave demonstrations of how our competition robot works, and the process behind building it. We also recruited several people for our summer classes by giving out flyers showcasing the subjects we’ll be teaching. The subjects for our summer classes include a girls only building class, a CAD (computer aided drafting) class, and an intro to FTC building, an intro to FTC java programming.

We had groups of attendees tour our machine shop. Each member gave a short description of what their roles and responsibilities in the team are, and how they accomplished tasks. We encouraged each attendee to look into the appropriate FIRST program for their grade and join.

Overall it was a great experience and we’re excited to come back next year!